


The Dragon's Treasure

by misura



Category: Paper Bag Princess - Robert Munsch
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-06
Updated: 2012-12-06
Packaged: 2017-11-20 12:03:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/585213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth goes home. Various things happen. </p><p>(Also contains moderate doses of floppy shoes, tennis rackets, bums and a treasure.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dragon's Treasure

**Author's Note:**

  * For [team_fen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/team_fen/gifts).



When Elizabeth left the dragon's cave, she was surprised to see there were six - no, seven people waiting for her. (They might have been waiting for the dragon, but this did not seem very likely.)

One of them wore a very high hat. One of them had very floppy shoes. Two of them had very glittery costumes that looked rather cold. One of them was wearing a lot of knives. One of them had a tiger, and one of them had a tennis racket.

Elizabeth would have thought they might be a circus troupe, except that she had never seen a circus act that involved a tennis racket.

"Can you spit fire?" the woman with the very high hat asked.

"No," said Elizabeth.

"Are you a famous magician?" the man with the very floppy shoes asked.

"No," said Elizabeth again.

"We're looking for the person who burnt down fifty forests," one of the two men in very glittery costumes that looked rather cold said.

"Or the person who burnt down a hundred forests," the other of the two men in very glittery costumes that looked rather cold said.

"That was a dragon," Elizabeth said. "He lives over there." She pointed at the large door with the huge knocker that led to the dragon's cave.

"Oh," the woman who was wearing a lot of knives said. "That's a pity. We'd been hoping there might have been someone able to spit fire or do magic who might like to join our circus."

Elizabeth did not think the dragon would like to join a circus, although it seemed like a great deal of fun to her.

"Unfortunately, our tent is just not big enough for a dragon," the woman who had a tiger said.

After thanking Elizabeth for telling them about the dragon, all the people from the circus left. Only the man who had a tennis racket stayed behind. This was because he did not use the tennis racket to make people laugh or go 'ooh!' and ' aah!' in a circus tent. Instead, he used it to teach people how to play tennis. Sometimes, he made them laugh a little, and sometimes, he even made them go 'ooh!' and 'aah!', but he never did any of those things inside a tent.

"Have you seen a prince around here?" he asked Elizabeth.

"Yes, I have," said Elizabeth. "He went that way," and she pointed in the direction Ronald had gone.

"Thank you very much," Ronald's tennis instructor (for that was who he was) said, and then he left, too.

Elizabeth didn't mind. She did not like tennis very much, even if she did like the circus very much. Still, she had never seen a circus act that involved a princess, any more than she'd seen one that involved a tennis racket. She'd have liked to learn how to wear a high hat, or very floppy shoes, or very glittery costumes that looked rather cold, or how to throw knives at a person without hitting them or how to make a tiger do just what you told him to do.

Maybe, she thought, once she got home, she should look for someone who could teach her those things. After all, if there were people who taught you such complicated things as how to bow to the ambassador of Farawasia (which was a very complicated thing indeed), there also had to be people around who taught you such simple things as how to jump up and do three somersaults.

 

When Elizabeth got back to her smashed castle, it no longer looked quite so smashed anymore.

There were a lot of people walking around. At first, Elizabeth though they were rebuilding her castle, which was nice of them. Then, she noticed they were just carrying away the stones.

Elizabeth's castle had been built out of very good stones. They had been very expensive - much more expensive than the stones ordinary people could afford to buy for their houses. So now that the dragon had smashed the castle and (they thought) eaten Elizabeth, people wanted to use the stones for their own homes.

"The dragon didn't eat me!" Elizabeth said. "Look, I'm right here."

She didn't quite know what to do about her castle yet, but she figured she'd simply talk with the people who had taken the stones and they'd work something out. Now that she wasn't going to marry Ronald anymore, having a big castle didn't seem very important anymore.

"You're not Princess Elizabeth," someone said. "You're wearing a dirty old paper bag!"

"You're not Princess Elizabeth," someone else said. "Your hair is all tangled!"

"You're not Princess Elizabeth," a third someone said. "You smell like ashes!"

Elizabeth considered explaining how these things had happened, but she did not think people would listen to her. Like Ronald, they were bums. And unlike Ronald, they had probably never seen her other than from very far way, when she'd been standing on a balcony or driving in a carriage.

They would never believe she was really Princess Elizabeth.

 

Meanwhile, the dragon had finally woken up. He looked in his cave and discovered Ronald was gone.

Then he looked in his _secret_ cave and discovered all of the treasures he'd collected over the years were still there.

Then he looked in his _extra very secret_ cave and discovered all of his books were still there, too. They were books his parents had given him when he'd moved into his first cave, and they were full of old dragon wisdom on how to prevent humans from tricking you. There were also a few books about butterflies, because the dragon's father had loved butterflies. (To look at. Butterflies were much too small for a dragon to consider eating them.)

Over the years, the dragon had never read a single one of the books. At first, he'd been busy decorating his new home. Later, he'd been busy collecting treasures. After that, he'd been busy dusting and polishing his treasures. It was completely not the dragon's fault he'd never found the time to read.

Plus, the dragon didn't really believe reading some old book would make him any smarter than he already was. It would be a waste of time.

Now, the dragon knew that he had been tricked by a human. If he'd listened to his parents, he might have prevented that from happening.

On the other hand, the dragon reasoned, since it had already happened, there was no point in reading the books anymore. It would be much better to find Elizabeth, make a hearty breakfast out of her, and then go look for another castle to smash.

And so the dragon set out in the direction of the last castle he had smashed, looking for Elizabeth.

 

Elizabeth still hadn't found anyone who believed she was really Princess Elizabeth.

She knew Ronald would recognize her, and maybe if she asked nicely, he would confirm her identity to other people, but she did not want to make any requests of Ronald after telling him she wasn't going to marry him. Besides, it was a long way to where he lived.

On the other hand, her castle had been smashed and all of her clothes had been burnt. A kind woman offered her dinner and a place to sleep in exchange for Elizabeth doing the dishes.

Elizabeth had never done the dishes before. She smashed one plate and she dropped two of the cups. She felt rather guilty about that, so on the second day, she went outside, determined to get people to recognize her today, so that she'd be able to buy a new plate.

It didn't look very good, but then the dragon arrived. He recognized Elizabeth instantly.

"You're that princess who tricked me!" he shouted, loud enough for everyone in the whole city to hear it.

Elizabeth's ears hurt, but she didn't let that distract her. "You're mistaking me for someone else," she told the dragon. She was speaking at a normal volume, so nobody except the dragon was able to hear her. All the other people were hiding in their houses, hoping the dragon wouldn't eat them.

"No, I don't!" the dragon screamed. "I have an excellent memory. You're Princess Elizabeth!"

"But my hair's all tangled and I'm wearing a dirty old paper bag," Elizabeth said. She no longer smelled of ashes, as she'd taken a bath that morning. "How could I be a princess?"

The dragon wasn't sure how to answer that question. She was right; princesses generally didn't have tangled hair. They wore expensive princess clothes, not dirty old paper bags.

It seemed the dragon had been tricked by a human _again_. It was a bit embarrassing.

"You're right," the dragon said. Since he was so embarrassed though, his voice was only as loud as a human speaking normally. "You can't be a princess."

"You gave me quite a scare, you know," Elizabeth said.

The dragon was used to people being scared of him. He even enjoyed it, most of the time. Having someone be scared of you because you'd mistaken them for something they weren't felt rather silly, though.

"I'm terribly sorry about that," the dragon said. He considered for a moment. "I could make it up to you by giving you some of my treasure, if you'd like."

Naturally, the dragon had no intention of giving up any of his actual treasures. He didn't plan on giving away any of his gold or jewels or silver or old paintings of places and people he'd never seen.

"Really? That would be very kind of you," said Elizabeth.

"Okay. Just wait right here," the dragon said, and he flew back to his cave.

 

If the dragon had looked down even once on his way back, he might have noticed two people playing tennis in a clearing of one of the forests he hadn't burnt down.

He didn't, though. He was too busy deciding what to give to Elizabeth to apologize for mistaking her for a princess.

 

After about fifteen minutes, the dragon came back. It had taken him fourteen minutes to decide which treasures to give away and nearly forty seconds to fly back with them. That may not sound like a very long time, but for a dragon who had flown around the world in just ten seconds, thirty seconds was a very long time, indeed.

It took that long, because the treasure the dragon had decided to give away was very heavy. It wasn't comfortable to carry at all, and as a result, when he got there, the dragon wasn't in a very good mood.

He wasn't annoyed enough to go back on his decision not to eat Elizabeth, but it was a close call.

"Thank you, dragon! Thank you very much!" Elizabeth said, as an expensive princess dress fell right in front of her. (It was pretty, but the dragon hated how much dust it always seemed to collect, and it didn't have any big jewels on it.)

The dragon dropped the rest of what he'd been carrying, and then flew away without another word.

Elizabeth quickly put on the dress. She was just in time, because as soon as the dragon was gone, people started to come out of their houses again.

"You're Princess Elizabeth," someone said. "You're wearing an expensive princess dress."

"Your hair looks all tangled," someone else said.

"You smell like cheap soap," a third someone said.

Still, tangled hair and soapy smell or not, nobody doubted for a moment that she was Princess Elizabeth.

 

This time,if the dragon had looked down even once on his way back, he would not have noticed two people playing tennis in a clearing of one of the forests he hadn't burnt down.

But he didn't look down anyway, because he was too busy feeling pleased with himself.

 

The dragon had not given Elizabeth any gold or jewels or silver or old paintings of places and people she'd never seen. He'd given her three dresses, one of which had been torn. He'd given her a basket full of diamonds, which were technically jewels, but which the dragon didn't like because they looked like glass.

And he'd given her all of the books he'd had hidden in his _extra very secret_ cave.

There were a lot of them, and all of them were about humans doing clever, tricky things. Sometimes they tricked dragons into giving away their treasures. Sometimes they tricked evil genies into going back into their bottle. Sometimes they tricked leprechauns into giving away a pot of gold. And sometimes they tricked other humans into doing all kinds of things.

Elizabeth collected all of them, and then she used three of the diamonds to pay people to build a big building to put them in. It wasn't a castle, so the dragon wouldn't come and smash it again.

It was a library. Everyone who wanted to, could come in and borrow one of the books the dragon had given Elizabeth. After they read it, they brought it back and got another one they hadn't read yet.

As the word spread, people came to borrow books from further and further away. Generals were too busy reading to wage wars anymore, and kings were too busy to make up silly laws that only annoyed people, and thieves were too busy to steal things. (They didn't steal books, obviously, because they enjoyed reading them too much to want to keep them all to themselves. Plus, it was more fun if you were able to talk about your favorite book with other people.)

Prince Ronald turned his own castle into an enormous tennis court. It didn't get as many visitors as Elizabeth's library, but that was all right with him.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic's working title was, of course, _The Paperback Princess_ , as who could resist that pun? not me.
> 
> in the end, though, my beta reader pointed out naming it that might very well be considered a major spoiler (to say nothing of a rather poor pun) so voilá.
> 
> also: I'm sorry Elizabeth didn't get to join the circus.


End file.
